It was a fine spring day here in Charleston and the 329th birthday of Thomas Jefferson. I was sitting in my favorite restaurant in a downtown historic district hotel having lunch on the mezzanine when the commotion broke out below me.

A young woman with an exceptional figure, which was revealed by her scanty clothing, rushed out of one of the side hallways of the hotel into the large lobby running for the front entrance and the street beyond. She almost made it before collapsing in a boneless heap to the carpet.

Being an ardent admirer of the female form, and a Senior Master Wizard, I immediately transferred down to her location to see if I could be of any help. On appearing next to the young woman, it was immediately apparent that all was not as it had initially appeared, or anything even remotely resembling normal.

The young woman had scratches and welts from a beating on the exposed parts of her body. There was an electronic control collar locked tightly around her neck like those used to restrain dogs. She was barefoot and breathing very heavily, more heavily than her somewhat short run would normally produce. Additionally, she had a very large Talent, but I could detect no Magic from her.

To top the situation off, I could detect the rapid movement of several large individuals hurrying down the hallway that she had emerged from headed in our direction.

A touch on the collar released its lock, and it dropped to the floor, as I used a spell to lift the young woman into my arms before using another spell to transfer us out of the hotel. We vanished just as several men in suits burst out of the hallway at a run.

We reappeared in a back alley some distance from the hotel, and I lay the young woman down on the cleanest patch of pavement that I could find. The burn marks on her neck from the collar were now visible, and I had to wonder how she had ever made it as far as she had with that collar constantly discharging against her neck. She was still unconscious and now breathing rather shallowly. Using a medical spell, I checked on her condition and found several things.

The first was that she had been given a very powerful drug to reduce any pain that she felt, and the second was that she had two radio tracking chips buried in her body. I knew of no White Magic spell that would remove the drug from her body, and I feared that the dose of the drug that she had been given would kill her if something wasn’t done to counter it. The second thing was that the tracking chips would soon lead those chasing her here. Several things needed to be done if I were to keep this young woman alive, and out of the hands of those after her.

While I didn’t know a spell to remove the drug, I knew someone who might be able to do that. I had gone through a part of my Magic Training at the University of Georgia in Athens with a young woman who was a Mage. While her Talent wasn’t as strong as those of the O’Connell Women running the Agriculture Department, she had a good Talent, but it leaned more toward the care of animals then growing plants. She was currently a Veterinarian, and I would need to convince her to help me with this young woman.

Of course, we wouldn’t be able to use her veterinary clinic due to the tracking devices in the young woman, instead I would need to leave her somewhere while I talked to my Mage friend. Fortunately, I was aware of a place to hide her while I was gone, and it was far from this alley. Using a spell again, I picked up the unconscious young woman, and we vanished once more.

We instantly reappeared in a rundown and abandoned business park on the outskirts of Charleston. One of the buildings here had held an electronics testing and repair facility, and they had a large Faraday Cage in the building. When they went out of business, the cage had been left in the building. I could leave the young woman in the cage, and by combining it with a spell that I had developed to reduce radio frequency interference, the two trackers that she carried would be unable to get a signal out, and those after her would be unable to locate her.

After assuring that the young woman was reasonably comfortable in the Faraday Cage, I cast a preservation spell around her before transferring to the reception area of my friend Sylvia’s clinic startling several customers, their pets, and the receptionist.

“I’m Senior Master Gregory O’Brien, and it’s imperative that I see Sylvia immediately,” I told the receptionist while using a compliance spell. My rank had been necessary as I was wearing a business suit, so she wouldn’t have realized that I was a Wizard otherwise.

“I ... yes sir, go through the double doors; Sylvia will be in the last treatment room on the right,” she told me while those sitting there appeared rather upset by my immediate admission to the back of the office.

I found Sylvia in the room indicated with a rather elderly dog which was not in good shape. Sylvia was not happy to see me.

“I’m busy Greg, not now,” she told me on looking up and seeing me.

“I need your help,”

“I’m busy. This dog is in bad shape, and I don’t know if I can do much to save it,” she said in a tired voice. I checked the animal with my Magic senses, and found that indeed it had serious problems due to its age.

“There isn’t much that you can do for it,” I told her after a couple of minutes, but this was holding us up.

“The owner is a little girl who will be heartbroken if her pet dies,” she replied.

“I have a young woman who will also die without your help,” I told her, and a thought occurred to me, but it would take time, time that the young woman might not have even with the preservation spell.

“I’ll work on the dog, if you will go with me to help the young woman,” I told her.

“What stray have you picked up now, Greg?” she asked with a bit of a smile, as she knew me very well since we had gone through Magic training together for well over a year.

“I’m not sure, but she has a fine strong Talent that I would hate to lose,” I told her.

“And she’s good looking also,” Sylvia said with another smile.

“As a matter-of-fact, she is, but that doesn’t count as much as her Talent which is very strong, but she apparently isn’t aware of it, as she appears to have no knowledge of Magic,” I told her to a startled look.

“All right, I’ll go with you, but you have to work on the dog first,” she told me, knowing how much I regretted not knowing Magic when my Wife was sick.

“Fine, but he’ll need to be on the floor to work on him,” I told her, as I called blue chalk to me, before using a spell to move the dog from the treatment table to the floor. Sylvia moved the table while I turned him so his head was to the north, before I drew a circle around him large enough for the two of us and the dog to occupy but left it open.

Next I chalked the the necessary symbols for the spells around the dog before I turned and addressed Sylvia.

“Sit on the west side of the dog. I will sit on its east side and close the circle before we begin. Extend your hands to mine then, and I will start the Medical Spells needed. They’re for humans, but should work well enough on a dog,” I told her, and we proceeded to do that.

As I began the spells, the flames appeared, but they were a different color than the usual blue and yellow flames that the Eternal Flame sent when healing people. These were more red in color, but that could have been because of the dog, or the fact that Sylvia was a Mage and her Magic was different than mine. Still, the flames consumed the vapors that rose from the dog’s body during the healing.

We were finished in a short time, and the dog sat up and wanted to move to both of us. I used a quick freeze spell to keep him in place, while I broke the circle and then used another spell to remove all evidence of my work. On canceling the freeze spell, the dog happily danced around us and licked both of us several times.

“I’ll need to take him out to his owner, and then we can leave to see about your young woman,” she told me, then led the dog out to the reception area. I hoped that we hadn’t taken too long, and that the young woman was still alive. Sylvia returned several minutes later.

“Thank you, Greg, little Denise was very happy to have her dog back,” she told me before asking, “Where are we going?”

“To an abandoned business park, where I have her hidden. I didn’t dare take her to my place or bring her here, as she has two tracking chips buried in her.”

“Why didn’t you just remove them?”

“Because they could just find some other way to locate her then, and I have a plan for those chips,” I told her with a smile.

“Shall we go?” I asked and cast the transfer spell around the two of us. We vanished from the Veterinary Clinic.

We instantly reappeared in the building with the Faraday Cage in the business park. Sylvia looked around at the building and the Faraday Cage for several minutes.

“Can you work in there?” I asked, pointing to the cage.

“I don’t see why not. It doesn’t keep Magic from working, does it?”

“No,” I answered with a smile, “Magic works deep underground, under water, or anywhere else. A metal cage is no challenge at all,” I assured her, as we both entered the cage and sat by the young woman. Sylvia took her hand and started a mantra after I canceled the preservation spell. Several minutes passed before she looked up at me with a concerned expression on her face.

“This woman has been given a large dose of a drug to negate pain. I believe it’s the one called ‘Panacea’. She also has a number of other drugs in her system, one of which is to keep her from becoming pregnant, but it’s not totally dependable. She has also been abused in her vagina and rectum as well as her mouth. Additionally she was also beaten with some kind of instrument, and there are serious burns on her neck from something. Do you have any idea of what it was?” she asked finishing her diagnoses.

“Yes, it was an electronic control collar. I removed it before transferring us to another location,” I told her before asking, “Is she pregnant?”

“No, she isn’t.”

“I will use the pregnancy prevention spell on her later then,” I told her.

“Where did you find her?” Sylvia asked.

“I was having lunch on the mezzanine at my favorite restaurant at a hotel in the historic district when she burst out of a hallway below. She almost made it to the street entrance before collapsing. I transferred down to see what was wrong,” I told her.

“Did you come directly here?” she asked in concern.

“No, I transferred to a location several blocks from the hotel first to better evaluate her condition before coming here,” I told her.

“I know how powerful those collars are from the animals that I have treated. The only reason that she made it more than a few feet beyond the controller’s range is the Panacea, but I need to remove most of it, as she has been given a huge overdose, and it will kill her if left in her system,” Sylvia told me.

“Can you remove it? I don’t know any spells that would filter it out of her blood stream,” I acknowledged.

“Yes, I can remove it, but it will require time. Are you sure that we are safe here?”

“Yes, while you were working, I cast my strongest wards in the walls, and the roof of this building. Even a very strong Wizard won’t be able to get through them, and I don’t think they have any O’Connells working for them,” I told her.

“No, the O’Connells wouldn’t be connected to the kind of people who did this. Let me get started. Is there anything that you need to do, as it will take quite some time to remove the necessary amount of the drug from her system. I’m rather surprised that she is still alive as it is,” she told me.

“I’ll slip out and get some food, and some drinks as well as some clothes, blankets, and an air mattress for her to sleep on since I don’t know how long we may be here. Don’t worry though, you’ll be perfectly safe here inside my wards, and I won’t be longer than necessary,” I assured her.

“When you get back, I want to know how you are going to deal with those tracking chips,” Sylvia told me, before adding, “GO, I have work to do.”

I transferred to my house north of Charleston to change out of my suit and into some more comfortable clothes along with a Wizard’s robe. I collected food, water, bedding, and air mattresses, the later from my camping supplies, which I transferred to the building in the business park. Following that, I started on the more difficult task of finding something for the young woman to wear when she recovered.

When my wife had died, I had given away most of her things, as the memories they recalled were too painful to endure. Since we’d had no children, I couldn’t borrow things from daughters or daughters-in -law. However, there were still many second hand outlets such as Goodwill, the Salvation Army, and others where one could obtain clothing without attracting much attention. I transferred to one of these outlets that I knew of, and purchased a couple of night gowns, a house robe, slippers, and some under garments for women. I did receive a number of questioning looks from other patrons, but I ignored them, since I always drew stares and questions in my Wizard’s robe.

On checking out, I walked a short distance from the store and slipped between some buildings to transfer back to the business park. On returning to the building, I fixed food for Sylvia and myself before inflating a couple of the air mattresses. I then used a cleaning spell on the used clothing that I had purchased. I would need to adjust them to fit the young woman when she recovered.

When I checked on Sylvia, she was still busy with a mantra, so I didn’t disturb her, but I did have some of the food, as I hadn’t finished my lunch nor paid for it, but the waiters knew me and that I was good for the bill. The only other thing to do at this time was to wait for Sylvia to finish. I lay down on one of the air mattresses and was soon asleep.

At some point later, I was awakened by Sylvia’s touch and sat up refreshed. Sylvia on the other hand looked worn out and disheveled.

“Are you all right?” I asked on seeing her.

“I’m tired but will be all right. That kind of work isn’t one of my strongest Talents, but I have reduced the amount of the drug in her system to less than half the normal dose. She will wake up in five or six hours. I also worked on the other problems that she had, and she is better now. You were right though, she has a very large Talent. It’s probably the reason that she got as far as she did. Well, that and the drug,” she told me.

“Where did you send the drug that you removed? Could someone else be affected by it?”

“I sent it to a underground storage tank here in the business park. The drug will deteriorate into its components there and will be harmless long before anyone decides to pump that tank,” she told me in a tired voice.

“I have some food prepared for you. You should eat and get some rest, then I’ll transfer you home. Do you still live at the same place?” I asked.

“Yes, the same place for the last four years. It’s been one of the constants in my life, as my work takes me all over the state at times. It seems that I’ve become the ‘go-to-girl’ when other Vets have a problem,” she told me with a tired smile.

“Sit down here,” I told her as I rose from the air mattress. “I’ve already warmed it up for you.” I also called a plate of food to me that I had prepared for her and heated it. She was a bit surprised to find the food hot, but ate it all before lying down, and she was asleep in short order. I spread a blanket over her before going to check on the young woman.

She was still unconscious. After inflating another air mattress, I placed her on it and covered her with another blanket. There wasn’t much to do now but wait for one of the women to wake up, and I called the book of Magic that I was currently studying to me and read from it until someone stirred.

Sylvia awoke after something over three hours had passed. It was darker in the building now, and I had called a Magic powered lamp to me to read by. She stretched after sitting up, and looked around in the gloom before calling my name, “Greg?”

“I’m over here,” I told her, as I closed the book and returned it to its place before picking up the lantern to carry it over by her.

“You want more to eat?” I asked as I joined her.

“No, not right now. You were going to tell me how you were going to deal with those tracking chips,” she reminded me.

“Yes, I was, and we should do that now if you are up to it.”

“I’m fine, but just what is it that WE are going to do?”

“I need you to call something for me to transfer those two chips into. If I simply remove them, they will stop working, as they are designed to work off the recipient’s body heat. I can remove them with a spell, but I need something alive and warm to transfer them to,” I explained.

“How large a something? Cat size? Dog size? Or horse size?” she asked.

“Probably something larger than a cat but smaller than say a German Shepard. Also something that will be difficult for those looking for her to track down. Something wild that wouldn’t be inclined to respond to a human calling it,” I told her.

“Don’t ask for anything simple,” she said in a voice full of annoyance. “A coyote would fill the bill easily, but there aren’t any around Charleston, that I’m aware of. A stray cat or dog wouldn’t be too hard to find but could be lured in by humans. That doesn’t leave... !” and she stopped talking abruptly.

“We’re near the river, aren’t we?” she asked after a short time. Since there are rivers on both sides of Charleston and a bay where they meet, I thought the question rhetorical but answered.

“Yes, we’re near the Ashley, why?”

“There are some very large and dangerous river rats that live around the rivers, especially in and around deserted or rundown buildings or business parks!” she told me with a big grin.

“Can you cancel your wards in the wall nearest the river?” she asked.

“Yes, I can lower them there, why?”

“I need to see if I can find one of those big wharf or river rats. Bigger than the one whose mind I contacted just a bit ago,” she told me. I lowered my wards in the wall nearest the river, and Sylvia went to work and soon had a very intent look on her face.

About ten minutes past before I heard a scratching sound and shortly the largest river rat that I had ever seen came into view of the light cast by the Magic powered lantern. I quickly cast a freeze spell on it, and Sylvia visibly relaxed as the rat froze in place.

“Lord, that required a lot of effort. It didn’t want to come in here with us here, but it had great difficulty resisting the smell of the food that you had prepared. We’ll need to feed it when we send it on its way,” she told me.

I was busy looking at the rat. It was huge for a rat being about the size of a terrier dog, but it would do as a carrier for the tracking chips, and it wasn’t very likely to respond to the presence or calls of humans, other than by going in the opposite direction to what they wanted.

“I think, I’ll take some of that food you offered me before,” Sylvia was saying when I returned my attention to her. I made up a plate for her and another for the rat that I would transfer outside when we released it. I also restored my wards in the wall near the river, as we didn’t need any of its friends visiting.

While Sylvia ate, I transferred the frozen rat to the Faraday Cage and close to the still unconscious young woman. Sylvia was soon finished eating.

“Are you ready?” I asked, as she pushed the now empty plate away from her.

“Yes, what’s the plan?”

“I’ve already moved the rat over to the cage. Once we are in there, I will remove the tracking chips one at a time and transfer them to the rat, but I need you to tell me the best place to implant them.

“Once they are implanted, I’ll need you to check the rat to ensure that everything is all right. Then I need you to impress on it that the biggest blackest terrier it has ever seen is on its trail, before I transfer it outside and cancel the freeze spell, and that it needs to get away from here as far and as fast as it can.

“I’ll also transfer the plate of food that I prepared for it outside before removing the freeze spell. You will also need to impress on it, that it needs to eat before fleeing,” I told her.

“You’re a real devil, Greg,” she told me with a grin. “Those people will be chasing that thing for a long time, and the closer they get to it, the farther it will run, “she finished. “Let’s do it.”

The removal of the chips and the implanting of them in the rat went very well, and took little time. Mr. Rat was soon on his way with a full belly. I was sure that it would lead those after the young woman on a merry chase, at least for a while before they caught onto the ruse.